Caro van eekelen
Management director, accor hotels the
Netherlands
By Lily lin
INTRODUCTION
In
1987 Caro van Eekelen received her Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management
at the School for Hospitality Management (Hogere Hotelschool) in The
Hague. She joined Golden Tulip
International in 1986, where she spent six years working on several hotel
openings in the Caribbean, Ghana and France as Rooms Division Manager. In 1992 Caro joined Disneyland Resort Paris
for the opening and liked it so much that she ended up staying with the Company
for 14 years. She worked in operations
and human resources management and eventually, as the Director of Performance
& Operational Labor Management. In
2006 Caro van Eekelen founded her own consultancy company, CVE, in Paris,
specializing in hospitality management. She
advised companies in the hospitality sector on management and organizational
issues, focusing on optimization of human resources. From 2007 to 2009 she was the Chief Operating
Officer at Adagio City Aparthotel in Paris, where she oversaw the Company’s expansion
to 30 Aparthotels in European major cities.
Since July 2009, Caro van Eekelen is the Managing Director at Accor
Hotels The Netherlands.
INTERVIEW
You
are the Chairwoman of the Jury at Mercure Cultuurprijs. Can you tell us a
little bit more about this award?
Our objective is to improve brand
awareness for Mercure hotels in The Netherlands. The Mercure Culture Award this year is a
tableware design competition.
Participants are required to design a tableware concept for the
restaurant tables of Mercure hotels. The
winning design will be put into production and used in the Mercure hotels in
the Netherlands.
You came up through operations management. How did your experience help you to reach your current position?
You came up through operations management. How did your experience help you to reach your current position?
When I worked for Golden Tulip International, I opened a lot of hotels in different parts of the world. Due to
those experiences, I speak English and French fluently, and of course
Disneyland Paris was very keen on hiring me due to my opening experience and the necessary
language skills. My drive is to go for results with a
team and have fun. In Operations Management, you need vision, which is
translated into action. You also need
the ability to communicate your vision and explain the actions required. Then, you make it fun to come to work. In housekeeping where I started, for example,
it is very important to create THE difference. Cleaning 17 rooms a day is no
fun, but if you can motivate people to come to work every day to do their job,
you can manage almost any team. These experiences
really helped me to develop leadership and management skills. Secondly, I always look for a way to do
things differently. I take calculated
risks; I like to think out of the box and convince people to initiate
changes. In general, I don’t like being
in a status quo situation; I am very solution oriented, and I like action. For some people it can be hard and tiring to
work with me, because I go very fast, too fast.… But, they also like the other side of me, and
that is I am inspiring.
I understand that you worked in a
number of hotel openings. What did you
learn from these experiences? I did hotel openings in Aruba, Amsterdam, Paris and
Ghana. When you open hotels, you have to
create everything; you have to form teams, recruit suppliers, and work with partners.
You must convert what’s in your mind into reality, and at the same time, you
must yield the best results before the opening-date deadline. Before the
opening date, you must hire and train people, take reservations, clean the
hotel, solve technical problems, and all these with the horrible deadline
hanging over your head. You think you will never make it, but you always do.
You
worked for Disneyland for 14 years. How
did you like working for Disneyland Paris? I liked it very much. Before Disneyland Paris, I changed job every
couple of years by moving to a different country. In Disneyland, I could change
job without moving. I started in
housekeeping, and then I went to Security where I had to manage a team of 150
men. After going through other jobs in
HR and operations, I was given the full responsibility to set up a 15-month
training program for new employees. I worked with the French Ministry of Labor,
negotiated contracts with unions and worked on a special recognized certification
process, which was approved by the French State. My last job at the Disneyland
Resort Paris was Director of Performance and Labor. We scheduled 10,000 people
on a daily basis and that included 250 temps per day, I also worked on optimization
on recruitment forecasts, etc.
The
current economic situations in Europe as well as in the US do not look
promising. Forecasts for the next couple
of years also look rather deem. In your view, how would this influence hotel
business in Europe and worldwide? Although we are getting bad news every
day, we don’t see banks failing yet. The
[Dutch] government is trying to prevent banking problems from getting
worse. We do business as usual, but we
are very attentive on any changes. We do see that some companies have restricted
their travel budgets already.
What
do you think of the fact that Amsterdam now has the highest room rate in the
world?
It’s true that Amsterdam and certain parts of the Netherlands
do not have enough rooms. The fact that Amsterdam hotel rates are the highest
in the world is not good for attracting people to Holland. Currently, the
Amsterdam market is doing fine. It is the only city [in the Netherlands] that
is comfortable pushing room rate rather than pushing volume. Rotterdam is doing ok. The Hague faces some
difficulties. The rest of the markets in
Holland are quite different. They are
facing difficulties in the current economic situation.
RM is
about “maximizing revenue”. Demand increase does not necessarily lead to
revenue maximization --- and revenue maximization does not necessarily
guarantee profit maximization. In fact, it is entirely possible that at one
point, the more revenue you generate or the more room you sell, the less profit
you make. So, why is the hotel industry still concentrating on “revenue
maximization” instead of “profit maximization”?
Exactly! You have to first
consider, what the contribution is from certain room rates. Volume and average room price and costs are
directly linked to your result. So you always have to check them. On top of it, you cannot lower your price,
when the competitors are benchmarking against your rates. At Schiphol, other
hotels benchmark against our rates and undercut us. In the long term rate-cutting is a killer,
because bringing your rate back to the previous level takes a long time. Only Early bookers get cheaper rates.
What
is your vision for ACCOR Netherland?
Our vision is that ACCOR has a powerful brand portfolio, from
luxury to economy brands.
In 2012 we will focus on the economy brands. In fact, we are going to re-brand our
economic brands: Ibis, a widely
recognized brand, will become our Mega Brand that will be subdivided into three
brands:
(1) Ibis will stay as ibis hotels;
(2) All Seasons will become “Ibis Styles”;
(3) Etap Hotel will become “Ibis Budget”.
In addition, we are going to stop with Hotel Formula 1 in the
NL.
What
about ACCOR’s luxury brands, such as Sofitel and Pullman?
In
today’s travel industry, rich guests do not necessarily stay in luxury hotels. We are seeing more and more affluent
customers stay with the “new economy brands”.
The same trend is happening in other industries; for example, Porsche
owners shop in IKEA or H&M. Our
economy brands generate 51% of the ACCOR GOP
worldwide.
Hotel
Formula 1 is a rather successful economy brand in France. Why do you want to discontinue it in Holland?
France is a big country, if you are just looking for a bed to
rest, and an economy hotel situated on the roadside that offers convenience,
Formula 1 is a good choice. Holland is a
small country. In Holland distances are much smaller. After a meeting or
conference, you can always go home.
Therefore, Formula1is not as appealing in the Netherlands as it is in
France. we will replace Formula 1 with
Etap in the Netherlands.
Are
you in favor of franchising business?
We want to double the number of hotels in Holland, of which
we aim to have 20 franchisees.
. The trend that individual hotels use ACCOR
brand is increasing. , ACCOR franchisees will be able to decrease commissions
paid to the third party intermediaries.
We know that one half of our bookings come from our brand site and 30%
of our bookings come from third party intermediaries. The remaining reservations come from 800
number, booking with the hotel directly and walk-ins.
Our franchisees are very satisfied, due to their hotels’
increase in RevPar and average rate.
They accept that they have to invest to maintain brand images.
Is it
difficult to manage a hotel company that caters to the luxury markets as well as
economy markets?
We have knowledge to manage all types of hotels. It’s all about positioning. Quality and price relationship is
important. We need to know, what the
guest is willing to spend and what she/he is looking for.
Is ACCOR primarily a business
hotel?
We target the corporate market. Almost
90% of the international guests in ACCOR hotels in Amsterdam are business
guests, whereas [in the rest of] Holland, approximately 80% of the [ACCOR] guests
is business travelers.
As
you go through your daily routine, and as the Managing Director ACCOR
Netherland, what concerns you the most?
I am very concerned with quality of service; in fact, quality
in general. You have to mobilize your
employees around quality. [To improve
quality], human resources strategy is very important; i.e., recruitment,
training, career path, etc. ACCOR does
annual quality surveys among its employees worldwide, and it is called “Great
Place to Work Survey”. The Netherlands
ACCOR was able to improve its ranking from the 21st place to the 14th
place in just two years.
Why
do you think ACCOR pick you to be the Managing Director? There must be some things that you
excel. What are they?
I have a lot of experience setting up new things. I spent 19
years in France and as you know, ACCOR is a French company. I am persistent and
result-oriented. Of course, I am also
Dutch.
Revenue management is one of the
major business and management developments in the hotel industry during the
last 10+ years. ACCOR recognizes the
importance of revenue management. So,
what do you think of the concept of product development/improvement and revenue
maximization? Why aren’t revenue
management and/or marketing heavily involved in product development?
In Accor, we do involve marketing, revenue management, as
well as operations management.
What
about the development of using social media to book a room --- and eventually
with a mobile device? Do you think this
will be the future?
ACCOR already has an APP for Iphone and Blackberry. Android
will soon follow and of course, we do have a mobile version of accorhotels.com.
Hotel business has image problems. We have to show that hotel
business has changed! Today, it is very dynamic. We forget to communicate this new image to
today’s travelers and particularly in social media. Personally, I tweet and I also use LinkedIn;
it makes me more accessible. But of
course, accessibility and transparency go together.
How
much value do you place on human judgment versus, for example, automated
revenue management system?
Machines can do a lot of preparation work for us but in the
end, we still have to rely on human common sense.
If
you were to hire someone to work for you, what are the most important
qualifications, such as knowledge and skills, education, work experience,
personality, work ethic, etc., that this person must possess?
It depends on the job.
Definitely, I would hire all kinds of people. I believe having a workforce that is multicultural
and diversified is very important. Even
more important, I look for people who can complement each other’s strengths
because this kind of workforce will give you much better results.
What
advice would you give to inspiring students who are interested to enter the
hotel industry?
In the beginning, do as many different things as
possible. Experience the work
first. For instance, I would never have
planned to work in housekeeping or security.
By doing this you get to discover a different world.
The world is changing so fast! That is why you must be more flexible about
your future. Finally, you must be willing to learn. If you are willing to learn, you can achieve
anything, and life never gets boring.
ACCOR
is a French company. Which aspect of the
French culture do you find, as a Dutch person, most challenging to adjust to?
With my 19 years experience abroad, I am more European than
Dutch. When I first returned to Holland
to take over ACCOR Netherland, I had to make many adjustments. It was really challenging in the beginning
but I am like a fish in the water now.
What is the most challenging
task you are facing on your current job?
It is difficult to develop hotels. We have some new hotels but we need more. We are fighting to change our rather dusty image
that ACCOR is a modern company to work for and to stay.
What is your proudest moment?
I am always proud when the teams work together and achieve
goals they thought were impossible to achieve.
Career-wise, what will be
your next step?
No clue! We will see;
I am always open to everything! But I‘m
not finished with my job here yet!
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